A Fred Weasley Tribute
by Aiden Short
Summary: Roxanne learns about her Uncle Fred and the sacrifices people made during the war.


_**Fred Weasley Tribute**_

_**Aiden Short**_

_**2014**_

**Disclaimer! The words that look like **_**this **_**are not mine. They're from the Harry Potter books.**

**Prompt: Roxanne Weasley**

"_Okay, truth!"_

"_Uuuummmmmm… if… you… had… a girl! What would you name her?"_

"_Hmm, probably Roxanne. I've always really like that name."_

"Alright class. Your assignment for Christmas break is to write a report on someone who gave their life in the Great Battle of Hogwarts. It needs to be 130 cm long and I want it to be meaningful. Have a good holiday and I will see you all next semester."

Roxanne sighed, threw her notes, quill and ink in to her bag and stretched in her seat before standing to make her way out of the history lesson. It was the last lesson of the day and tomorrow she would be on the Hogwarts Express, heading home for the holiday break. It was a huge relief. Not having to sit through lesson after boring lesson and playing pranks on her family sounded like heaven. Even if she did have to write that stupid essay about dead people. Seriously, they were dead! Why did they even matter anymore?

You see, Roxanne wasn't much of a history fanatic. In fact, you could say she didn't even care about it at all. She believed whatever happened in the past, should stay there and the people of the present shouldn't have to dwell on it.

"So who are you going to write about?" Molly, Roxanne's best friend and cousin asked as she caught up to her in the hallway on their journey back to the Gryffindor common room. Her short red curls bounced around wildly as she trotted to keep up with Roxanne's long legs. She was very short and curvy, much like her namesake, their paternal grandmother, Molly.

Roxanne shrugged nonchalantly. She had no idea what the Battle of Hogwarts even was, much less who fought and died in it. She vaguely new her parents had something to do with it. Like it was a dance to the death battle against the Dance Eaters? They were led by that evil dancer Volden Morter and her Uncle Harry was the Hogwarts dance captain? Yeah, that sounded right.

"I'm doing mine on Colin Creevey. He was actually too young to fight and was supposed to be sent away, but he snuck back to fight and paid with his life. Really inspiring, isn't it?"

"Sure!" Roxanne shrugged again. Molly chatted on enthusiastically about Colin Creevey and the war, but Roxanne tuned her out. She really didn't care, but didn't have the heart to tell Molly.

God she couldn't wait to get home for Christmas break.

"Roxy! Fred!" Shouted Roxanne's mother, Angelina, as she and her brother, Fred, stepped off the Hogwarts express and into her loving embrace. "I missed you two so much!"

Roxanne's father stood by idly, hand shoved in his trouser pockets and a lopsided grin glued to his face. "Did you play any good pranks on your teachers?"

"George!" Angelina scolded with a stern look on her face, hitting his chest softly. "Don't put ideas like that in their heads!"

"I'm sorry, what'd you say?" he asked still smiling. He leaned in close to her, cupping the hole in his head where his ear should have been. "I can't hear you, I only have one ear. You'll have to speak up."

Roxanne and Fred laughed hysterically. It was quite common for their father to make one-ear jokes, even though he had lost the appendage a long time ago. He was always in good humor. Angelina tried to keep her face stern, but soon began to giggle uncontrollably as George held is funny pose and batted his eyelashes, making duck lips.

It was good to be home.

The next morning, Angelina and Fred went Christmas shopping with Roxanne's aunts, Ginny and Hermione, and cousin, Lily. Roxanne stayed home with George. She loved spending time with him. They had joke competitions, prank challenges, and sometimes he took her with him to his joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Those were her favorite times. One day she hoped to run the shop, making people smile, just like her dad.

Currently, Roxanne was scrubbing away at the breakfast dishes while George read The Daily Prophet. She really hated the job. She just didn't understand why she had to perform such hard labor when her family could easily use magic to have it done in seconds.

George's news paper rustled a bit as he turned the page. "Do you have any homework for holiday break?"

"Yeah," Roxanne sighed as she wiped some soapy water off her cheek that had splashed up when she dropped a pot into the sink. "I have a history paper."

"What about?"

"Someone who died in the in The Dance Battle of Hogwarts," She heard her father choke a little and she turned to look at him. "I don't get why we have to even learn about it anyway! Who cares what happened in the past? It's done so why do we keep worrying about it?"

George laid his paper down neatly across the table, smoothing out the wrinkles carefully before look up at his daughter. He gestured to the seat across from him. "Sit down."

Roxanne whipped her hands off on a dishtowel as she made her way to the table and plopped down in her chair with a content sigh. George continued to stare at her with a peculiar look on his face.

"Did I ever tell you about your uncle?" He asked as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"Uncle Harry? Yeah, he was the dance captain at the Dance Battle. But he didn't die."

"No, not Harry," George leaned forward again, resting his arms on the table and staring at Roxanne, a serious expression on his face. "Did I ever tell you about my brother, Fred?"

"You had a brother named Fred?"

Roxanne felt confused. George never acted serious, always keeping the mood light. It occurred to Roxanne that the story her father was about to tell was extremely important and she needed to pay attention.

"Many years ago, before I was even born, a dark wizard came to power. He killed many people, muggles and wizards alike. He had a large following. Very few had the courage to stand up to him, and those who did usually paid with their lives," George looked Roxanne straight in the eye as he spoke. As much as she despised history, she knew this time she must remember every word her dad told her.

"Then came a prophecy," George slowed down his speech a bit to ensure Roxanne really understood. "It said that the dark wizard would fall at the hands of a boy born in July. That boy was your uncle Harry. You remember the story don't you?"

It came back to Roxanne. All the fuzzy details she didn't care about flew from her mouth as she finished the story. "The wizard went to kill Harry when he was just a baby to eliminate the threat. He killed Harry's parent, but when he turned his wand on Harry, the curse backfired killing him and Harry was left with that lightning bolt scar on his forehead."

"But he wasn't really dead, was he?"

"No, uh," Roxanne thought for a moment. "He wasn't really dead. He went away to gather power and finally managed to come back a while later. There was another scary time but there were more good people to stop him. Finally, Harry fought him in the Battle of Hogwarts and killed him for good that time. What was his name?"

"Voldemort," George shuddered at the name. "There were many sacrifices made. I lost my ear battling that wicked man and many good people gave their lives to ensure you could live in a safe world. One of those brave people was my brother Fred."

George looked down at the table and traced patterns on his news paper. His voice shook a little as he spoke and Roxanne knew this was an extremely sensitive topic for him. "Fred was my twin brother. We both loved jokes and were major pranksters. We especially loved to pretend we were each other."

"_**Alright Fred, you first!"**_

"_**He's not Fred, I am!"**_

"_**Honestly woman. And you call yourself our mother."**_

"_**I'm only joking! I am Fred!"**_

"Oh we drove you Grandmother batty, bless her soul." George stared out into space, his finger still moving aimlessly around the paper. His eyes were clouded and there was a fond smile on his face. "We annoyed you Uncle Percy to no end as well. Messing with him was our favorite pastime."

"_**The Ministry's providing a couple of cars."**_

"_**Why?"**_

"_**It's because of you Perce! And there'll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them-"**_

"_**- for Humungous Bighead!"**_

"Oh! We had so much fun together!" George choked out something between a laugh and a sob. "I remember in our fourth year, Harry was accused to be the heir of Slytherin. We went out of our way to march in front of him down the corridors, shouting about how evil he was!"

"_**Make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…"**_

"_**It is **_**not **_**a laughing matter!"**_

"_**Oh, get out of the way, Percy. Harry's in a hurry."**_

"_**Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant!"**_

"Good times," George sighed. "He was a good brother. I named you for him!"

"I thought you named Fred for him?"

"I name Fred _after_ him. I named you _for_ him. He told me once he would name his daughter Roxanne if he ever had one."

Roxanne was a bit uncomfortable now. She had never seen her father act like this in all her years of living. It was rather unnerving.

"Now Roxanne, remember this and take it with you the rest of your life. The past is your future. We need to know what happened. We need to remember the sacrifices those people made in their past so we could have our future." George then stood up from his chair and left without another word, locking himself away in his room for the rest of the day.

Something changed within Roxanne. She didn't understand what or why, but something was really different now. She felt the need to research everything on the Battle of Hogwarts, more than what they taught her in history class. She really needed to find out Fred's full story, and the stories of everyone else that died during the war, and what kind of impact they left on their families. It wasn't something she _wanted_ to do; it was something she _needed_ to do. And she did.

"Welcome back students. I hope you all had a lovely holiday. As you all know, I assigned you to write a paper on someone who gave their life in the Battle of Hogwarts. Today, I would like for everyone to read their reports out loud to the class. Who would like to go first?"

A hand shot up at the back of the class.

"Yes, Miss Weasley."

Roxanne made her way to the front of the class. Taking a deep breath, she began her essay.

"The past is our future. I never really understood that until now. We need to know what happened and remember the sacrifices those people made in their past so we could have our future." Roxanne looked out at all the faces of her classmates and took a moment to wonder which of them would make their sacrifice to help better their future. It was a dark thought, but she couldn't help have it pass through her head.

"I have chosen to write about my Uncle Fred. He was the twin brother of my father George, and together, they were the infamous Weasley brothers. They're main goal in life was making people laugh," She set aside the parchment she was reading from. Everything her father and her uncle Percy had told her about Fred was permanently engraved in her brain. "I think this is a rather ironic thing about him, because when he was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts, he was laughing."

_**And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of hi last laugh still etched upon his face.**_

**R.I.P Fred Weasley**


End file.
